Johanna Konta reaches Italian Open final after victory over Kiki Bertens

Kerolina Pliskova secured her biggest claycourt title of her career by ending Johanna Konta's prolific run for the Italian Open trophy.

In 2019, though, she arrived in Italy after reaching her first clay final in Rabat last month, and once in Rome, she beat both Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens on the same day to reach her first Premier clay quarter-final, survived a three-setter against rising star Marketa Vondrousova, and beat Kiki Bertens, Madrid champion, in an impressive three sets and nearly three hours.

"I have Conchita. She won (in Rome) four times, so that's quite (a lot of) motivation for me", said Pliskova of the Spanish former Wimbledon champion. As for Pliskova, she has played her fair share of tough matches in the past, and this one will be no different.

Speaking to reporters later, Djokovic said, "I was just running out of fuel a little bit today".

She had never gone past the semi-finals in her four previous appearances in Rome.

British No. 1 Konta struggled to trouble Pliskova on serve as she fell to a seventh loss in eight meetings between the players.

Pliskova missed a break point in Konta's opening service game of the second set but eventually broke the 28-year-old at 3-3 before holding serve to secure victory. She even had the chance of a break back in the ninth, but hit an easy smash into the net, and Pliskova did not offer another chance, 6-3.

Pliskova, the fourth seed, beat Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-2 on Friday and plays 39th-ranked Sakkari, who ousted France's Kristina Mladenovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-0, for a place in the final. Konta has definitely changed as a player and has become a much more confident player, but the tennis world still suggests that it is Pliskova that has the edge going into Sunday. "There's rarely really a rhythm to the match. It can feel sometimes like you are fighting an uphill battle, and that was the case today".

"I just thought she didn't really have a letdown throughout the match".

After a hesitant couple of years, Johanna Konta has rediscovered the verve and self-belief that once made her a grand-slam contender.

Big Ben sorry for ruining relationship with Brown
Pittsburgh relented in March, sending him to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a pair of mid-round draft picks. In the same interview, the quarterback said he probably went too far in his radio show comments regarding Brown. 5/21/2019

Sony just laid out everything there is to know about the PS5
Also, securing Sony for its Azure business could make it the new standard for cloud deployment over Amazon Web Services. Not so much, however, if the company is paying hefty licensing fees to its main competitor at the same time. 5/21/2019

OnePlus 7 Pro Malaysia: Everything you need to know
Corroborated by today's renders is the fact that the rear panel of the OnePlus 7 Pro will be carved out of a single slab of glass. While they're capable in good conditions, they really don't compare well at all to the best camera phones around. 5/21/2019

Patriots, Edelman reach 2-year extension
Before the knee injury, Edelman combined for 356 receptions in his previous four seasons, including 105 in 2013 and 98 in 2016. That postseason, he produced back-to-back 100-yard games to drive New England to Super Bowl LI against the Falcons . 5/21/2019

Fifth migrant child dies in Border Patrol custody
On April 30, a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy died after officials at an HHS detention facility noticed that he was sick. It also recently opened a 500-person tent near one port of entry and announced plans to open another. 5/21/2019